Duke Energy inaugurates 150 MW North Rosamond solar project in US

Duke Energy Renewables, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, has announced that its 150 megawatt North Rosamond solar project in Kern County, Calififornia, has begun commercial operation.

The 150 MW project, which contains over 477,000 solar panels, is located on approximately 1,188 acres outside of Rosamond, and will power approximately 71,000 homes.

The energy generated from the North Rosamond solar project is being sold to Southern California Edison under a 15-year agreement.

The facility’s design, procurement of PV modules, inverters, balance of plant systems and construction of the project were performed by First Solar Electric California’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) subsidiary under a fixed-price EPC agreement for the project.

The U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation, the tax credit division of U.S. Bank; M&T Bank’s Commercial Equipment Finance Group; and The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America provided tax equity financing to the project.

CIT’s Power and Energy group led a consortium of lending institutions that provided construction loan and ITC bridge loan facilities to fund equipment, engineering, construction and other costs needed to achieve final completion of the project. These facilities will be converted to a single term loan facility that will be used to finance the project over the next 15 years.